Listed for $1,695,000 in early 2009, it sold for $950,000 that December. And three years later, the 1,004-square-foot one-bedroom #27B within the San Francisco Four Seasons on Market Street returned to the market listed for $1,490,000 but was withdrawn from the MLS early last year without a reported sale.

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Comments from “Plugged-In” Readers

Love the floors in the living room but the ceilings are too low and HOA is too high. If you want that hotel feel why don’t you just book a room for a few nights and save the $1.65m – $1500 for something else?

There’s a decent chance it’s because the business you run in your home company is a little shady and you want to park your cash someplace safe in an asset that you can control. You want your son/daughter to go to Stanford and become an internet bazillionaire and this could be a place for him/her/you to stay while you visit or apply. It’s blue chip, it’s in a growing market and you are more concerned with keeping your money safe than with an HOA fee. It’s not a company that will go bust. You can buy it through some LLC that will obscure your identity for your home country’s journalists and taxation specialists. It’s cheap compared to London or Hong Kong or Manhattan.

I understand the financial reasons for parking your money in something like this, but it still amazes me that this is essentially my first off campus apartment in Eugene, Oregon that I rented for $175.00 a month in the 1970’s.
Granted, my view was of a parking lot and my floor was ’70’s shag carpet, but you could build out this interior for $100K.

Let’s also assume you’re apartment wasn’t affiliated with one of the premiere hotel and luxury brands in the world and wasn’t in the heart of one of the fastest growing cities in the world. This apartment is small but the buyer looking into the Four Seasons will pretty much be looking at a pied-à-terre situation and not a primary residence and size will not be the driving factor. I’m surprised that the 1bds in that building aren’t scooped up by adjacent 2 or 3 bd condos and merged. I do think the price is a little hard to justify but this isn’t a typical condo. I’d say the $995/psf in 2009 was a good buy.

The HOA fee for the full-time Fairmont Heritage Place at Ghirardelli Square residence that recently went up for sale with a $2.2 million asking (fully furnished, 1,300 ft.² two bed, two bath for about $1,700 per ft.²) is $8,608 quarterly, or more than 50% higher than this one-bedroom.